Americans and Iraqis owe a debt of gratitude to Gen. David Petraeus for the fact that Iraq has gone from bad to far better over the past year and a half. Petraeus, who is becoming commander of U.S. Central Command based in Florida, put the brilliant counterinsurgency strategy he’d helped author during his command of Fort Leavenworth into practice in Iraq. And with the key assistance of Iraqis, he oversaw a dramatic reduction in violence and tremendous weakening of terrorists and extremist militias. It was largely because of Petraeus’ own leadership that he was able to thank troops Tuesday for having “turned ‘hard but not hopeless’ into still hard but hopeful.” Now the task of further securing Iraq belongs to Gen. Ray Odierno.
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/22
- American_Way on Open thread 11/22
- American_Way on Health care reform would save state money
- satatom on Open thread 11/22
- satatom on Open thread 11/22
- cosmos_originally on Open thread 11/22
- American_Way on Open thread 11/22
- cosmos_originally on Open thread 11/22
- Raptor on Open thread 11/22
- cosmos_originally on Open thread 11/22
32 Comments
Can someone tell me if this is really the end of his term or if he’s just tired of stirring propaganda reports for the Bush administration?
William “Fox” Fallon quit because he didn’t want to dress our SEALs up as Iranians and fire upon our own ships and thus start another “Gulf of Tonkin” incident and provoke a war with Iran. Don’t believe me? Neo-cons won’t believe it because Michelle Malkin didn’t say so.
As if provoking a war with Russia isn’t enough.
Thank you General for staying the course and not playing politics with our men and women like the dimo’s did with Vietnam.
Maybe I’ll let Bush set fire to my house. While it’s a raging inferno he’ll throw a bucket of water on it. After an hour the fire begins to die down then he’ll congratulate himself that everything is better and he was so brave with his single bucket of water. And I’ll be left with a burnt out house.
‘Tis the same with Iraq if anyone of you can’t comprehend metaphors.
Thank you General Petraeus for your extraordinary effort and dedication to duty. You make us very proud and we are equally proud of our troops.
That was brilliant, pay them not to fight us! Wouldn’t have been necessary if bush hadn’t dismantled the Iraq military, and put everyone on the streets.
I haven’t been shooting at the American military, where’s my paycheck?
maggotpunk………you looking for MORE handouts? and political mama……..hopefully you are looking for something smart to say…….there are firsts for everything.
More handouts? I don’t get a handout, I don’t make enough money to qualify for handouts.
oops…………i thought you just asked where “your paycheck” was. And your first post did take a shot at the American military. Sorry I guess the check is not in the mail.
We’ll soon see the Petraeus Payouts extended to Afghanistan, and it’ll start to turn around! ‘Military Madness is killing our Country! So much sadness between you and me.’
The Petraeus Doctrine, if you can’t beat them, hire them.
Lets see, I ask a question that is legitimate, as all the others coming out of there saying they were merely mouthpieces for what the administration told them to do and say…and hick comes back with an attack on me and MP….as if he had something important to say.
It seems he has done as well as anyone could in this tough job. He didn’t have the opportunity to decide the mission only to do his duty to the best of his ability. America’s problem begins because she has such an absolute failure as Commander in Chief.
What legitimate question did you ask? I surely missed it. And what point did you miss? The one where MP attacked the American military (and you did also) or the “no paycheck in the mail”?
Oh give me a freakin break, as if Democrats had nothing to do with the mission, talk about heads in the sand – DEMOCRATS BEFORE THE WAR: http://www.bercasio.com/movies/dems-wmd-before-iraq.wmv
Dadman, how dare your use the traitorus Democratics words against? Don’t you know it is unfair and meanspirtied to point out their lies? Obama, Biden and all of the leadership of the Democratics in Congress should be arrested and charge with treason and sedition.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
Why would there be an insurrection to prepare for here in America? The GREATER DEPRESSION maybe?
The end of Posse Comitatus.
But I’m sure this won’t mean much either.
Right-on AlanB – Right-on
Interesting article, Pleefer. Thank you for sharing. We know global climate change is increasing the potential for our worst natural disasters — hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires… And I see the possibility that this fall’s elections could end in turmoil. Certainly hope not, but there is that possibility. Our divisiveness is a concern to me.
Thanks for taking the time to read it Linda.
What it is, is acclimation at its most subtle. We’ll soon get used to this and then demand it (that’s “their” hope anyway). It’s creeping death of our country and unless we grow up and face it, it will happen.
Eisenhower warned us in his farewell address.
I’ve read this several times over the term of the current idiot in charge.
——–
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/speeches/eisenhower001.htm
MoveOn.org, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama called him General BE-TRAY-US a year and a half ago.
Now Gen Petraeus is seen as a hero. He was right.
I wonder when MoveOn.org, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are going to admit they were wrong, and offer an apology for calling the General a liar?
Thanks Linda, hopefully folks will visit that and let it soak in.
Is the surge still in effect?
The ’surge’ hopfully will always be in effect – only now it’s run by the Iraqis – NO ISLAMIC CALIPHATE FOR YOU !!!! Bin-laden
You truly have to “love” the media bias.
When strategy is not working or things are not going as well as we would have hoped… well… that was all Bush’s fault of course.
Now that things are going better… well… that is all thanks to Gen. Petraeus!
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that a great deal of thanks does go to the man.
I think that all the blame that Bush has gotten for the past several years didn’t deserve to go to him.
This article just goes to reinforce my belief that the chief failure in Iraq was Rumsfeld’s insistence that we needed no clean-up plans; that the Iraqi people would be so thrilled at being rid of Saddam Hussein that they would do whatever we told them.
Not much interest in Iraq, or Gen Petraeus nowadays.
It’s so bad in Iraq though, and Obama wants the troops out so fast, that Obama told the Iraqis to wait until after the election to finalize a withdrawal plan.
It’s so bad in Iraq though, and Obama wants the troops out so fast, that Obama told the Iraqis to wait until after the election to finalize a withdrawal plan.
You’ve found corroborating information on the opinion article in they New York Post? Please share!
The ’surge’ hopfully will always be in effect – only now it’s run by the Iraqis -
Should I have asked if the U.S. surge was still in effect? If it’s now being run by the Iraqis, are they in charge of only their troops or the U.S. troops also?
I’m asking because I thought the surge was to only last a limited amount of time, but I can’t recall the details. That was why it was called a surge, instead of saying it was to add additional troops for the long haul.